Cheers turned to confusion Friday when the province asked the Alberta Utilities Commission to suspend its work on the Heartland Transmission Project in the morning — only to tell them to resume it that afternoon.
The commission (AUC) announced Friday morning that, in response to a letter from Alberta Energy Minister Ted Morton, it was putting its reviews of the Heartland, Eastern and Western transmission line projects on hold. The announcement came just days before the commission was expected to release its ruling on the Heartland project, which runs through Sturgeon County.
The letter noted that the commission had these three projects before it and that the province was reviewing its approach to those projects.
"Until the government completes its review of those three projects," Morton wrote, "I respectfully request that the AUC suspend or adjourn its consideration of those three applications."
The AUC would do so, said spokesperson Jim Law, meaning that it would not issue its decision on the Heartland project on Oct. 24 as originally planned. Instead, it would hold off on releasing it until the province's review was done. It would also cancel its January start date for the hearing on the eastern line, which, if built, would run around Gibbons to Brooks, and its November start date for the western line, which runs from the Genesee region to Calgary.
St. Albert lawyer Keith Wilson, who has been advising several groups opposed to the Heartland project, said he had hoped this day would come. "I'm really pleased that the government and Premier Redford have made this decision," he said.
Bruce Johnson, spokesperson for Responsible Electricity Transmission for Albertans, said he was extremely pleased by this decision.
"We've been maintaining for a long time that this was a massive overbuild," he said, and he hoped the review would either stop or scale down the Heartland project.
Sturgeon County Mayor Don Rigney also praised the decision. The Heartland project had been approved through a flawed process and needed review, he said.
"This is the first step to restoring the democratic process."
Whoops!
But at a previously scheduled news conference in Calgary at 2 p.m. Friday, Premier Alison Redford said that she wanted the AUC to release its decision as planned.
"I was surprised to see the letter, quite frankly," she said, noting how she had described the Heartland line as "critical" during her leadership campaign.
"As a result of that information that I received subsequent to the letter being sent, we will be reversing our request to the AUC to delay releasing of the decision," she said, adding that the mix up was likely the result of a miscommunication. "I want the AUC to release their decision. That is appropriate in terms of their responsibilities and I do not want the government to have interfered with that in any way."
Johnson was taken aback when told of her remarks.
"Jesus, are you kidding me?" was his initial response. "I think it's ridiculous."
The energy minister had asked for a pause, he said, the AUC had granted it, and now the premier was overturning it.
Rigney said he was very disappointed by Redford's remarks. "You can't get a good decision out of a flawed process."
This "bizarre" reversal raised questions about the independence of the AUC, Wilson said. "I am absolutely puzzled as to how this level of mismanagement of this issue by our new premier could occur."
Critics: it's still overbuild
Friday's announcements dealt with three power lines affected by Bill 50, the Electric Statutes Amendment Act. That act grants the province the power to designate certain lines as "critical infrastructure" and let them bypass the normal AUC needs assessment hearing.
Line companies have a financial incentive to overbuild transmission, Wilson said, and those needs hearings are meant to keep the public from buying more line than necessary. "Bill 50 took that public needs assessment away, and we got this massive overbuild."
Critics such as Wilson have said that the Heartland project is unnecessary and too expensive, and have predicted that it would cause power bills to skyrocket if built.
Johnson said he hoped the AUC's decision would at least call for a scaled down, underground line.
"If the decision is to build it above ground and build this huge overbuild, then we will fight it and it will become a huge election issue."
The AUC would now release its decision on the Heartland project in about a week, Law said.
